As expected, redshirt freshman Zavier Scott started at running back in UConn’s season opener against Central Florida. But after Scott fumbled on his first carry of the game, he spent much of the rest of the night on the sideline, watching sophomore Kevin Mensah lead the Huskies’ rushing attack.

Mensah’s heavy workload Thursday (20 carries for 59 yards) followed an offseason in which he missed much of spring practice due to academic issues, then worked behind other backs during UConn’s preseason training camp. Even after Nate Hopkins left the team and Donevin O’Reilly suffered a season-ending ACL injury, Scott took the bulk of the first-team carries.

Scott was named the starter on the Huskies’ first two-deep chart of the season, but coach Randy Edsall made clear that both Scott and Mensah, who led the Huskies in rushing last season, would get significant touches. As it turned out, Scott played only sparingly in the first half after his fumble on the opening drive, finishing with three carries for -2 yards.

Mensah said after the game that he did not expect to receive so many carries but that he was prepared for the opportunity.

“I knew to be ready,” Mensah said. “When you get your shot and your opportunity, you just go out and do what you do.”

Across the field, UConn showed Thursday that it would not stick too closely to its official depth chart. Nino Leone (right guard), Santana Sterling (middle linebacker), Kevin Murphy (defensive line), Carlton Steer (defensive line) and Marshe Terry (Husky) all started despite being listed as backups.

Attendance Boost

The UConn athletic department on Thursday revised statistics regarding football ticket sales that it had recently provided to The Courant.

The Huskies' season ticket allocation is down from 16,000 each of the past three years to 13,000 this season, an athletic department spokesman said hours before the Huskies kicked off the 2018 season against Central Florida.

That represents about a 15 percent drop-off. Initially, the numbers UConn provided represented a 44 percent drop — from 16,000 to 9,000.

Average home attendance in 2017 was 20,334, by far the lowest in program history.

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A spokesman said Thursday that the Huskies have sold 9,500 season tickets, and that number, while it includes student tickets, does not include comps, which bring the total allocation to 13,000. Last year, UConn sold about 11,200 season tickets sold and the season ticket base, with comps included, was 16,000.

The announced attendance for Thursday’s game was 23,081.

Aresco Says Rivalries Will Come

Some UConn fans have suggested that the Huskies’ attendance woes are due to a lack of natural rivalries in the American Athletic Conference. Whereas the Huskies had a history with Syracuse, Pittsburgh and other former Big East rivals, they don’t share such deep bonds with their new conference opponents.

Former UConn coach Bob Diaco’s attempt to create a UConn-UCF rivalry called the Civil ConFLiCT never took, but an hour before those teams squared off Thursday, AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said he expects rivalries to develop as the conference continues to improve.

“It’s the quality of play,” Aresco said at Rentschler Field. “Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins, that was not a natural rivalry. But it became a heck of a rivalry because of George Allen, Tom Landry. The teams were really good.”

Aresco spoke Thursday about the value, from the conference’s perspective, of UCF’s 13-0 season last year.

“What last year did was begin to cement the end of the beginning,” Aresco said. “We realized at that point that we were going to get national attention. UCF, you can’t argue now that they aren’t a national brand, and you can’t argue the league isn’t a national brand.”

Scary Moment For UCF’s Robinson

On the very first play of the game, the opening kickoff, UCF’s Aaron Robinson collided with another player and fell to the turf, barely moving. He was down for several minutes before being carted off.

“He’s going to be OK,” UCF coach Josh Heupel said after the game. “He’s going to stay overnight and they’re going to monitor him and make sure everything’s going to be OK long term, but they feel pretty good.”